Maya Joint, The 20-Year-Old Who Beat Serena Williams At Wimbledon: What You Need To Know
Wimbledon fever is well and truly here. From the celebrity sightings in the stands to the head-turning walk-on outfits (Naomi Osaka, we're looking at you), and the trickle-down summer style, all eyes are on SW19 as the championship heats up. And if one name is on everyone's lips this year, it is that of 20-year-old Australian player Maya Joint, who beat Serena Williams in a first-round defeat, in the 23-time Grand Slam champion's first singles match since 2022.
'I was up until 2am just thinking about it,' Joint said in her post-match interview. 'I mean, I was looking for my first Wimbledon win, just a win in general. I was playing against Serena on Centre Court. Just a lot of thoughts going through my mind, because I wanted to do really well, and I was nervous about what was going to happen.'
It was a welcomed surprise when Williams, now aged 44, announced her return to tennis after a four-year absence last month, but she lost to Joint in a 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3 defeat. What is perhaps more surprising is that Joint had headed into the competition after losing 11 matches in a row, coming out of the other end in a spectacular turnaround. "I really don't know what to say! I don't know what just happened to be honest," Joint said in her on-court interview. Speaking about Williams, she said: "She has such an aura, she's such a legend. I've been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy."
But who is Joint, and what can we expect from her next? Read on for everything you need to know.
Born in Detroit in April 2006, and raised in her early years in the US, Joint started showing promise on the junior tennis circuit and began her professional tennis career only in 2023. According to her athlete profile on Red Bull, she comes from a family of racket sport experts, with her father a former professional squash player. Joint began playing herself while in kindergarten.
It was in 2023 that she relocated to Brisbane to train at Tennis Australia’s National Academy, having only visited the country once before moving – despite her father being Australian and herself holding dual citizenship with the United States.
In a video with the Women's Tennis Association, she revealed she is also a brown belt in karate. Joint's support team at Wimbledon includes coach Chris Mahony, plus her fitness coach, her mother and her agent.
At Tennis Australia’s National Academy, Joint trained alongside players like Kim Birrell and Ajla Tomljanović, who described her as 'quite introverted' but added that 'the more time you spend with her she's very quirky, very funny'.
'She's very professional,' Tomljanović said. 'She likes to stay in her bubble in her team'.
Two years ago, in 2024, she made her Grand Slam singles debut at the US Open. Then, in 2025, she won her first WTA Tour singles title, becoming the youngest Australian to win a match at a WTA 1000 event, before speedily progressing and moving into the top 30 world rankings in 2026 when she was seeded for the Australian Open. As of July 1 2026, at the start of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships, Maya holds a world singles ranking of No. 49, down from No. 33 in February. Her 2026 season was reportedly disrupted due to a lower-back injury that forced her to withdraw from several tournaments.
In an interview in tennis.com, Joint reflected on her meteoric rise. 'I've had to work a lot with my mental coach about just kind of playing those matches, because more of those matches have happened, where I'm playing, like, a name,' she said. 'And I just need to play the ball that's coming at me, and not the person.'
'It's been so cool being able to walk out on the stages with all those people and play against those people, just people that I've watched on television and then realising, ''oh, someone might be watching me on television, this is really weird''.'
In her Instagram bio, Joint describes herself as a 'ginger ninja' . While she is new to the game, she is sponsored by Red Bull, Australian Crypto platform Coin Spot, and the Melbourne-based sportswear brand, Elite Eleven. She frequently wears her signature wraparound Oakley sunglasses and uses the Yonex Ezone 98L racket.
Off the court, Joint has been pictured arriving at the 2025 Newcombe Medal at Crown Palladium in December 2025 in Melbourne, wearing an elegant pink silk gown with a wavy shoulder-length bob haircut.
Maya Joint will play her second round today, July 2, at 11am BST against Filipino player Alexandra Eala.
The two last met in the 2025 Eastbourne final, which Joint won.
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Chiara Wilkinson is the Deputy Multiplatform Editor of ELLE UK, looking after the Culture + Life section on the website. She was previously Deputy Editor at Time Out and Senior Digital Editor at ArtReview and has written for British Vogue, The Guardian and Vice, covering arts, culture, wellness and travel. Chiara was named one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 awards and was shortlisted for Best Features Writer at the BSME awards.